There’s good news this morning for everybody out there who didn’t eat a slice of leftover pie for breakfast: That delicious plate of bacon and eggs could actually help you lose weight.

Well, OK, the bacon part probably won’t help. But researchers have shown that eggs for breakfast can help people lose weight.

In a test of obese or overweight volunteers, researchers gave half of the group cereal for breakfast, and the other half ate an egg. For lunch they were given an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The researchers discovered that three hours after breakfast, the people who ate the egg had significantly lower levels of the hormone that stimulates appetite and higher levels of the hormone that signals fullness than the people who ate cereal.

The egg-eating subjects also ate less food at lunch.

"This study shows that diets with higher protein quality may enhance satiety, leading to better compliance and success of a weight loss diet," said Dr. Nikhil Dhurandhar, who led the study.

The study "shows the quality of protein in your diet, rather than the quantity, can affect how full you feel," said dietician Tracy Parker of the British Heart Foundation to The Telegraph.

Parker also pointed out that the study was funded by the American Egg Board, and as such did not look at the effects of eating other, non-egg proteins for breakfast. Maybe that bacon will help out after all. In the meantime, get a head start by checking out some of our egg recipes.